Beeches Pool

I spent many a Monday night of my early teenage years swimming in this pool. This was a Triple-S club training pool and always felt like the club's 'home pool' even though we swam at a different pool each day of the week (Monday here, Tuesday at Cardinal Wiseman school, Thursdays at Castle Vale, Friday at Erdington, Saturday nights were swimming gala's across the Midlands and then the occasional Sunday morning session in Brownhills - every day except Wednesdays, no swimming on Wednesdays!. I may have associated this with the 'home pool' because it was the annual Christmas party swim dos session!

I've not been here in almost 30 years, and the place hasn't changed a bit - which isn't good. I still remember my first evening with the club; I was nine or ten, had 'outgrown' my weekly Wyndley swimming lessons and my instructor suggested I try out for a local swim club. Mum brought me here to the early session. I recall being asked to do a couple of laps in the 'baby' pool to show what I could do; I remember this being a weird request, so I made a protest sprint in 0.6m of water. They put me in the fast lane for the rest of the session, then asked me to come back next week for the later session ... and that's how all this started!